Playing on the White Strings

Last summer I attended a harp workshop. In addition to listening to, and playing lovely harp music, the workshop took place in the middle of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. While I listened to and played all kinds of Celtic music, anywhere I looked, was a mountain to watch, paint, photograph or just enjoy.

One exercise I learned in the harp group involved playing on the white strings only. You see, on a harp there are red strings, blue ones and the white. I discovered this: if everyone in the room plays on the white strings only, no matter what they played, every tune harmonized with the other. Wow. How fun is that?

Of course, after a while, you realize this is not something you want to do all the time. Why? Because there are no longer any surprises. Where are the contrast, unexpected notes, and conflict?

I’m guilty of doing that in my writing. Sticking only to the known and not ever branching out to the unknown with your writing is like playing on the white strings. It’s fun for a while, but pretty soon you may feel as if you are missing something. It’s time to try the colored strings, even if it is intimidating, and you’re afraid of failure.

If you write romances, branch out to mysteries. If you write nonfiction, why not write a short story? Poets, creative nonfiction might be the perfect genre for you. Never get stuck in a rut, try the new scary thing. What if you fail? You learn and stretch and go on to other things.

Come on, get off those white strings, and take a risk.

News and Views

All kinds of things going on here.

I have the rights back for my Tali Books and Fairy Dust.
Doing a re-write on Fairy Dust and submitting it to a new publisher.
Have a short fantasy running around in my head.
Working on a new Tali Cates short mystery.
Deciding what to do with the novel length Tali Cates books. Kindle? Look for another publisher? Do I need to make them sexier or beef up the romance??

Lay-off potentials making me evaluate whether or not I could stay home, write, fit in some nonfiction since that is where the money comes from at the moment.

Even just a part-time job would let me write more. Everything always comes down to finances. Have to pay bills.

So, I'll keep you posted. How do you handle major career-life changes? They stress me out. I like the familier but maybe it's time for me to take a leap.

To Market, to market

We've all heard the words "write for yourself, not for market." Of course we all want to be read, to sell, so we run to where the "money" is.

I thought I'd learned my lesson when I tried so hard to write straight romance and mystery with no paranormal elements, since that was selling. Guess what, it didn't work for me. The minute I let the paranormal elements creep in, I had way more fun writing and it must have come through because I began to sell.

But I got tempted again. A call for Medical Romances went out for Harlequin. I couldn't resist. I've been a nurse since before most people I know were born. I know medicine, I'm a good writer, I could do this. So I did. One chapter went out and got a request for more. 60pages later I sent off a three chapter proposal with a synopsis.

I was rejected. They really liked my writing and my strong heroine. However, my hero just wasn't the Alpha-McDreamy they had in mind for the medical romance line and they suggested I submit again, with a new idea and new characters. As rejections go, this was an extremely flattering one.

Guess what I learned. I write strong, kick-ass heroines. I like having the unexpected magic happen. The romance is secondary to the mystery/adventure, even though the romance is there. I'm going back to what I love because I had to make myself write the romance. I was already thinking of ways to add murder and mayhem into the mix. I may write a paranoramal that involves a medical background and mystery some day, but straight romance, probably not.

What genre switches have you tried and what did you learn? Comment about it to win an electronic copy of one of the Tali Cates mysteries.

Underdogs

The under-dogs won the superbowl. Yay for the Underdogs. I love it, not that I have strong feeling about NY or Boston, but I like underdogs.

Maybe because writers are underdogs when we go up against the big houses and their establishment and try to get agents to represent us, even read our work. We are in an uphill battle no matter what direction we take with our writing, New York, small press, ebooks, they all have their inherent problems.

But then look at Jane Austen. She's one of the most popular romance writers of all time, she didn't make a living from her books, her brother and sister were her only support. Her sales were good but the publishing company took most of the money (gee, sound familiar?) Her mother never forgave her for not marrying into money when she had the chance. Jane held out for love, died at a much too early age and never made a decent living from her writing, but she wrote anyway, as we all do, because we are called to and would even if we weren't published, do even if we are never published.

Oops. The World of Myth store has the World of Myth anthology available for pre-order. My story, "Mam" is in there as well as a story by Sarah Wilson-who has written many stories for World of Myth and has her second vampire book coming out. Visit World of Myth and go the the store to check it out.